National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges
P ermanency P lanning for Children Department
The National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ) commitment to excellence began in 1937 when a group of leading judges sought to focus attention on the increasingly effective concept of a separate tribunal for children and their families. Separate courts for juveniles had been in existence since Chicago’s Cook County had established the nation’s first juvenile court in 1899. NCJFCJ leaders sought to bring together the nation’s jurists to provide meaningful assistance to judges, court administrators, and related professionals in whose care the concerns of children and their families had been entrusted. Through its biannual National College of Juvenile and Family Law, its educational division, and the National Center for Juvenile Justice, its juvenile crime and delinquency research division in Pittsburgh, Pa., the NCJFCJ today continues as a national leader in continuing judicial education. Louis W. McHardy serves as Executive Director of the NCJFCJ and Dean of the National College of Juvenile and Family Law.
The NCJFCJ is headquartered in the Midby-Byron National Center for Continuing Judicial Education on the University of Nevada campus in Reno, Nevada. It offers continuing education programs for judges, referees, probation officers, social workers, law enforcement personnel and other juvenile justice professionals. The NCJFCJ also takes a leadership role in development of improved court policies and practices in rapidly evolving areas of jurisprudence such as child abuse and neglect, foster care and adoption, family violence, child custody, school violence, alcohol and substance abuse, juvenile crime, and other juvenile and family court issues.
The NCJFCJ’s Permanency Planning for Children Department (PPCD) provides training, technical assistance, research and jurisdiction-specific consultation to improve court practice in child abuse and neglect cases. Mary V. Mentaberry, a 25-year employee of the NCJFCJ, has served as director of the PPCD since 1996. All PPCD activities are designed to ensure permanence in the lives of children and their families by improving court and systems practice in child abuse and neglect cases. Court improvement efforts will result in the prevention of unnecessary out-of-home placements, reunification of children and families whenever safely possible, and timely, permanent adoptive placements for children unable to return home.
With passage in late 1997 of the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and continuing government efforts to comply with the 1980 Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act, the PPCD has assumed national prominence as a judicial and interdisciplinary resource for educational programs and technical assistance. As court improvement efforts have continued throughout all 50 states, the PPCD has garnered national recognition for its publications, training programs, and achievements in 17 "Model Courts" throughout the nation where Lead Judges are spearheading interdisciplinary efforts benefit victims of child abuse and neglect. Using the nationally-recognized PPCD publication, RESOURCE GUIDELINES: Improving Court Practice in Child Abuse & Neglect Cases, Model Courts are examining all stages of the dependency process and improving policies and practices to benefit child abuse and neglect victims.
Additional information about PPCD training programs, Model Court achievements, technical assistance, research and publications is available from the: National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Permanency Planning for Children Department, P.O. Box 8970, Reno, NV 89507, (775) 327-5300, FAX (775) 327-5306, e-mail: ppp@pppncjfcj.org.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment
A: Program Instruction ACYF-PI-94-12
Attachment B: Estimated State Court Allotments
for FYs 1999-2001
Attachment
C: Standard Forms 424 and 424-A
Attachment
D: List of State Child Welfare
Administrators
Attachment
E: List of ACF Regional Administrators
Resources:
Center
on Children and the Law, American Bar Association
National Center for State Courts National Council for Juvenile and
Family Court Judges
National Center for
Juvenile Justice
